Ok, another day and a few more artists whose work is hanging at The Fig House for Thursday’s opening! These are the abstract pieces in the group. First Up… the tangly drawings, and bold paintings of San Diego based artist Jaime Derringer:

Ah, a lovely compliment to the dark teal walls! And finally, these abstracts are not drawings or paintings. Nope, they’re the colorful, flowing, thread pieces of LA based artist Nike Schroeder:

That first piece is actually an instagram that Emily Henderson took after Nike’s work was installed. GORGEOUS. Ok, three more of our Fig artists coming at you early tomorrow morning {and then I board the plane for LA!!!}

*Note: Not all of the pieces shown here are hanging at Fig… some of them were created especially for the space and haven’t been photographed by the artist yet. Oooh, fresh art!

So, after months of construction, a whole bunch of insanely beautiful interior design/styling by Emily Henderson, and some art curation by me, I’m finally off to LA this week for the opening of The Fig House{my fancy shoes are already packed!} Here are two of the artists whose work is hanging on the turquoise walls as we speak: American artists Kai Samuels Davis, and Clare Elsaesser. They are both such talented painters… oh, and they just happened to be married to eachother!

So good! I’ll be showing the work of all ten artists for the rest of the week, leading up to the opening on Thursday – if I’m not too partied out I’ll put up a recap/instagram post on Friday!

*A few of these pieces are in the show, and everything at the show is for sale.

Sweet little floating baby bubbles? Oh yes… I’m in! These delicate little babies are the work of Brooklyn based artist Cameron Cundiff. Here is his his description of this work:

“This series is about meditation. My idea of meditation is that it is very human and personal, so I wanted to represent the idea through figures. I chose babies because there’s no baked in narrative with babies; they are souls without stories.”

These paintings are part of the latest show on Buy Some Damn Art, and at $300 for an original I think we should all go over there right now and get our floaty-baby-meditation on… Om.

{this is the first of my new weekend posts. i want to give you the head’s up on a new show opening every weekend. so, galleries/artists/art enthusiasts… if there is a show i should know about, give me a shout!}

Who wants to go for a walk in an eerily quiet, yet absolutely beautiful forest? Me too! And I’ll bet that Austin based artist Joseph Noderer will meet us there with his oil paints! {All of these pieces are at least 2 feet x 3 feet, and some are up to 4′ x 5’!! Gorgeous!}

A few weeks ago, at PACE Gallery in New York, Jay Z performed his song “Picasso Baby” over and over and over for six hours. He sang face-to-face to individuals, in an attempt to create a personal connection and shared energy… kinda like:

Yep. In a very similar {yet totally different because he sang, danced, and laughed with his audience} way, this was not too far off from what Marina Abramović did at MoMA with her “Artist is Present” performance. Well, she showed up so that she could have her personal {yet rap filled} moment with Jay Z. I wonder if she was kinda there to say “Yes, cool. But you know I kinda did this already, right?” … or maybe she just loves hip hop as much as I do! {really, I do – so, so much!}

Lots of people including actors, artists, writers, musicians, collectors, and kids showed up to watch Jay Z. Oh, but make sure you cover the kids ears every few minutes {enter explicit lyrics here}.

It seemed like everyone there had an amazing time! My favorite moment was when this lovely lady in rose-colored glasses {Sandra Gering, Art Dealer} walked up, sat down, gave a huge smile and a little shoulder dip … completely throwing Jay Z off his game {around 2:28 in the video} He lost his words for a second and needed to regroup … ahh, nothin’ like a lady in rose-colored glasses to shake you up a bit:

Now, there’s lots of talk about this New York “happening”. Was it real art {whatever that means}? Was it just a really cool way to do a music video {which is actually an artistic project as well}? Was it a blatant copy {with music} of Marina’s performance? And then this question has also come up… if hip-hop is art for the people, why didn’t this happen in the streets instead of in a gallery with a very fancy invite list. Honestly, I’m not sure how to answer all of those questions, but I also don’t know that I need to. That’s what being creative is about, right? Just doing, and making, and sharing – and I think that Jay Z did it in a way that made the most sense for him and his medium. At the end of the day, it looks like it was a crazy fun, energy-filled six hours, and I am totally jealous of everyone who got to be part of it {including Jerry Saltz, New York Magazine art critic, who wrote a great article about his experience}

The only question left to ask… I wonder what Picasso would have thought? Given the images below {Picasso dancing with a poodle; Picasso dancing in his underpants; and a drawing of one of his dancers} I think he might have put on a stripy shirt and rocked it out with his new friend, Hova.

Here… you and Pablo can watch this together {the song, and a snippet of what went down that day – here’s the newly released video of the event}:

{Images: Various sources including Vogue, and grabs from the video above}

So, just to refresh your memory: I’ve been asked, by the lovely Emily Henderson, to curate a show in LA at The Fig House, a new event space that Emily is designing/styling. I received zillions {literally} of submissions and I want to thank you all so much for that! Now, I’d like to say that made my job easier, but it really just made everything a whole lot harder… there was sooooooo much fantastic work to choose from, and I had the tricky task of getting it down to TEN ARTISTS! Impossible? It felt like it a few times. Well, after much back and forth, I’ve got a truly amazing group lined up. Yes, there was really great work by lots of people, but this came down to finding pieces that will work well together, and work well in the space that Emily is creating {art deco meets the 80’s. For real, people.}.

Here is a little taste of what will be on the walls when The Fig House opens this fall:

YAY – I love it all! As soon as I know the exact date of the opening party, I’ll let you know. See you soon, LA!

Sigh… the work of California based artist Masako Miki. I love her work, and wrote about her back in 2011, so when it came time for me to start looking for artists to show at The Fig House in LA this coming summer, I hopped right over to her site… and found all of this new work! I love it all, but those red ink drawings on paper are kinda killing me. Oh, and yes, I’m thrilled to announce that Masako is in fact one of the confirmed artists for Fig House – YAY!!!

Beaver pelts, sequins, deer antlers, old axes, neon rope? Yep, these are the art supplies of Milwaukee based artist Cassandra Smith. All of the objects that she works with are found, and then manipulated in her own special, brightly colored, beautifully patterned way! Everything included here is part of Cassandra’s current show, titled “Out of the Wild” that is hanging, until June 1 2013, at Sky High Gallery {curated by the uber-creative Faythe Levine}. Here is Cassandra’s description of this work:

“My work is about manipulations and transformation. It is about exploring the ways that I can enhance and change found objects to give them something they did not have in their former life. I find a certain beauty in imposing my aesthetic, specifically color and pattern, onto natural or worn objects. I am fascinated by the dichotomy between organic and geometric shapes, the contrast between natural and synthetic. I strive to enhance these objects while respecting the inherent qualities that drew me to them in the first place.”